Chapter 4 decisions

The wedding drew nearer and I spent more and more time with my new neighbors, the Brandon's. I learnt a lot

about the family. The dad stopped aging at 20 and the mum was a human, who stopped aging when she gave

birth. all the kids had different mothers as a human could only bear 1 sprite child before she became 'froze' in time. Emma was Luke's mother. Luke had 3 sisters, Imogen, Pandora and Opal. They were fire sprites. Today Carlisle was to do the tests on me, to sort this mystery out once and for all. I learnt to monitor my thoughts around my new family, so as to not let on just how close I was to the vampires, they had made their feelings about them perfectly clear. I was working on them, trying to get them to see that m vampires were harmless. the wolves had made a truce with them, despite being sworn enemies. I hoped in time they would too. Edward understands that I need to spent time with them, to learn everything about myself as possible. Edward used the extra time to prepare for the wedding, as he no longer had nights to himself. We still hadn't told Rene, I knew I would have to soon. Early marriage was higher up on her black list than boiling puppies.

I threw on a light brown jumper and race down to meet Edward. he opened the door of his Volvo for me, something I never approved of, But he was often to fast for me to protest.

"What you favorite color today then?" he said gently, trying to distract me from what awaited

"Butterscotch" I replied as gazed into his eyes. My favorite color varied, depending on Edward's eye color," What are you doing today?"

He smiled as if I had said something hilarious.

" There is a thunder storm due so we thought we would go out and play some ball. After Carlisle runs the tests, Alice wants to fit your gown." I sighed heavily at this news. Then, to my surprise, Edward burst out laughing.

" And you have to tell Rene" he managed between breaths. Although it wasn't necessary for him to breath he found it easier to speak ( and smell) when he did. I curled up in my seat and wished he would keep his eyes on the road. I knew he didn't need to, no matter how fast he was traveling, but it still unnerved me.

When we arrived at the Cullen's house I was whisked away by Esme, all the time she muttered calm and encouraging comments,

"Don't worry bells, it'll be fine, we'll sort this out" she spoke in plurals, referring to the whole family. I knew there would be an exception, Rosalie. Easily the most beautiful vampire I had ever seen, golden hair, curved figure, beautiful before even taking on immortality, used to having guys notice her, vain enough to want guys to notice her. And also the one who hated me. I had everything she wanted but couldn't have. She could out run me, out smart me, turn me to dust with one hand. But she couldn't live as a human, and she couldn't have children. I was giving this up for what? was her reasoning. But I loved Edward more than anything in the world, and I would do anything to have him forever. One lifetime simply wasn't enough.

Carlisle was waiting, surrounded by various equipment. I trusted Carlisle, he was quick and more precise then any doctor I knew ( and I knew a few, with me being so accident prone). I remembered my eighteenth birthday when I fell on the glass and slashed open my arm, in minutes Carlisle had removed the glass and stitched me up. As I went to sit on the sofa, now in the center of the room, the Cullen's moved their furniture about a lot.
A wave of calm flooded over me. Jasper wouldn't be at the game then, he was appointed to control my mood during the testing. No Alice, no Jasper, no Carlisle. Their wouldn't be much of a team for either side, unless... I shuddered at the thought that now occurred to me. Unless there were some nomads in town. Travelers. Jasper stood as he felt the dread that began to fill me.

" No Bella, they will play the game with Tanya and her family to make up the numbers" Jasper answered my unspoken question.

It wasn't too hard to figure what I was thinking as my face often gave me away, Rene called me an open book. I would have to tell her today, we had been en.. en gag...there was no avoiding it with the wedding only weeks away.. engaged for 3 weeks or so. But first get the tests over with. I tuned out as I was poked and prodded and scanned. Nothing mattered when I was in my happy place. The setting varied from ice cold tundra, to lush green forests. I wasn't allowed to know the where I was going for the honeymoon, that was supposed to be a surprise. The setting didn't matter, being with Edward mattered. And being with Edward was the most wonderful thing on earth, when I was in my happy place with him.

When the tests were finished I was dragged upstairs by Alice to fit my wedding gown. I heard Carlisle mutter something about analyzing and the results wouldn't be clear for a few weeks until they had run further tests, before Alice got her hands on me. Once upstairs Alice stepped back to look at me.

"Did you get any sleep last night?" she frowned "you really need to take better care of yourself with the wedding so close"

I didn't reply, sure she wouldn't be too glad to hear the reason I had so little sleep. I used this time to silently converse with the sprites, well, mostly with Luke. Even in my head I could see the marvelous green eyes like pools of melted emeralds staring at me longingly. Jacob had taught me you could love more than one person, I was unsure if this applied across all beings, as if you could love more than one type of being. I still careful shielded my thoughts about the Cullen's during these conversations, trying too seek out the right moment to tell them I was marrying one of the Cullen's. Recently they had started to warn to these strange vampires who lived only on the blood of animals.

" Bloodsucking parasites, you spend a lot of time with very dangerous creatures" Luke had said to me one evening.

" You don't know them, have you ever wondered why the death count around here is so low?" I reasoned, a chill ran trough me, Edward lay next to me, not touching me so as not to make me cold.

"Because the wolves will tear them to shreds" he said it like it was perfectly logical. I nearly laughed, knowing that if they really wanted human blood the wolves would be weak to stop them.

"What about their eye color?" I said, dragging a picture of Rosalie to the front of my mind, hoping that he might respond better to her beauty, than my reasoning.

" What do they eat to give them such color?" a new voice joined

" Hi Reece" Luke's tone was almost annoyed at his father.

"Hello son" Reece said back in the same tone before turning his attention to me "what do they feed on to give them golden eyes, for I have only ever seen them with eyes as red as the blood they drink"

" Animal blood, they refer to themselves as "vegetarian vampires" you should really introduce your self to rest of the supernatural committee around here. Carlisle would love to meet you, he is very interested in newcomers, hes a doctor as well. The best." I tried to think of more things to encourage them.

" The whole family are very nice, they've lived among people for over 70 years, and they have a truce with the wolves, you may even call it a friendship" I yawned mentally.

" We'll have a think about it, you get some sleep" Reece said in quiet, soothing tones.

"OK, nightly night" I murmured sleepily

"Night bell" said Luke somberly as if he was saying goodbye.

"Okay, all done. I will fit it again nearer the wedding" Alice's voice brought me back to reality from my daydream. I looked down at the folds of cream and gossamer that billowed out slightly for the skirt.

I really didn't want to look in the mirror, to see myself in this dress would make it final, I was to be married. It wasn't the marriage that scared me, I wanted Edward forever, it was the attention of getting married so young. People always thought there to be an alternate motive when people so young married so hastily. When we first told Charlie he thought I was pregnant. I believe he even thought about shooting Edward. He wasn't too happy happy at first, but soon cheered up at his threat that I had to tell Rene. Alice removed the dress after making a few more adjustments, she disappeared with it into the next room and returned a moment later with a mobile phone.

"Call her then, it will be fine, I promise" Alice's smile told me she already knew of Rene's reaction and it was a good one, but that didn't make me any less nervous.

" Hello mum?" I called down the phone.

" Bella? Hello hon" hearing her voice made me realize how much I would miss her.

" Hi, um I have some news, me and Edward are.. getting married"

"pardon?"

" We are, en.. enga, .....engaged"

" When you came down here I thought things were pretty sewn up between you, but marriage? why so soon? it's pretty definite."

"I...I know... but I love him and... and were going to collage together and we'd rather do things the right way." what could she say? I?'d rather you live in sin first? as a parent her hands were tied.

" I trust you to make your own decisions, your not making my mistakes. You sound terrified, that's probably because of me,"

" But"

"But what hon?"

" Aren't you going to say I sound like every other infatuated teenager since the dawn of time?"

" I love you hon, you've never been a teenager, you know whats best for you, I trust you decision and wish you well. I'll have to book some flight tickets, they're expensive this late. And I'll have to talk to Esme, so much to do." she suddenly sounded very exited.

" See you soon mum" I said, completely shocked. I hung up and went to hand the phone back to Alice.

" Keep it, your old one was a bit outdated." she said back in an ' I told you so' tone as she flounced out of the room.

I felt a change in atmosphere as the others returned home. They were so quite as they moved about it was only the atmosphere that let me know I wasn't alone. Edward wasn't aloud upstairs in case he peeked at the dress. I went down and caught the end of a conversation,

" He still isn't 100% safe around humans, you need to taking him hunting at every possible time" Carlisle was saying.

" Thats not the concern I have right now, I met a messenger in the clearing, warning of the Volturi's approach" Edwards replied.

"And" pressed Carlisle sounding afraid, something that didn't seem to sound right on him.

"I told them about the wedding"

"We cant have them at the wedding, not with so many humans in a secluded area."

"They said they won't come, but we need to make some preparations, just in case"

"I'll talk to Alice when she's back". When she's back? she's on more errands for the wedding already?

I should never have agreed to let her plan it. A simple quite ceremony in las vagus in my jeans and jumper would have suited me fine, but I didn't want to upset Alice. I knew she was right when she said that my family would be most disappointed if I didn't invite them to my wedding.

"I Don't know about them, they seem very friendly with the wolves but thats the only thing I can pick up on. They really keep themselves to themselves" said Edward, answering a question I could not hear. I assumed it to be about the sprites. It was very convenient being a mental mute right now, so he didn't know the truth about them. They (the sprites) had become quite friendly with Charlie and often spent dinner with us. It turns out that a lot of supernatural beings are good cooks, what with so much free time on their hands. i.e. eternity.

Edward, conveniently, seemed to busy whenever they were coming over for tea. The more time I spent with Luke, the more I grew to like him, which is why I knew I had to tell him about the wedding soon. Any time was too soon, but my friendship with Jacob had survived this much. Jacob. My best friend. Gone. I sighed sadly at the memory. Wondering how Luke would react. My heart beat finally alerted the pair in the front room that they were not alone.

h

" Hello Bella" said Carlisle with an authentic looking smile, but I knew that only years of practice held it there "we were just discussing the Brandon's, perhaps you have more insight in to the minds of the sprites."

"Not really, I'm still trying to convince them that your not like the others" I said in a half truth.

"Bella.. do they know yet? about us?" Edward queried looking as stressed as Carlisle.

"No, not yet." I admitted " I wanted to get as close as possible, learn as much about them as possible, as much about me, about what I could be capable of..." I trailed off, I could almost hear Edwards disappointment.

"Not to worry" chirped a voice as it rushed past.

"What? When? Now? But why?" Edward exclaimed aloud.

"If you could let us in on it please, not all of us can read minds. Alice, what did you see" asked Carlisle authoritatively.

"They're coming here, today" she sung at the idea of visitors whilst the rest of us (Ie. me an Carlisle) looked confused.

"The sprites" Edward filled in "Looks like Bella did a better job of convincing them than she thought".

I quickly focused on the voices of the Brandon's.

"Is it possible?" said a light voice I hadn't heard in my head before, I figured it must be one of Luke's sisters, either Pandora or Opal.

"Last night she forgot to block us out when she fell asleep, and her dreams were filled with them, of how good they were" this voice I recognized, it was Reece's.

"Thats what worries me, she seems very close to them, more close than she originally let on" thought Emma, joining the conversation.

"But, theres more, when you stopped listening I carried on. Their is one in particular shes close to, Edward I believe she called him." Luke's voice murmured sadly. I didn't want him to be sad, his sorrow filled tone made me feel like weeping. The image of the Cullen's drive flew into my head and I realized they were nearly here.

"That could be problematic" Reece's mused.

"It's worse" Luke's thoughts now were barley a whisper "shes marrying him". My entire head went silent, stunned.

" I love her, there is something about her, already part sprite, imagine the children..." Luke's mind was filled with possible futures, all involving us living together, like a normal family, my eyes were still chocolate brown, not the red they would become. And children, my children. The life I could never have if I stayed with Edward. I felt a lump in my throat.

" Bella, are you okay? What is going on" Edwards voice interrupted the stream of thoughts in my head. I knew my face would have given me away by now. Another image caught my attention, this one of the Cullen's house.

"They're here" stated Carlisle, in an attempt to break the tension.

"I'm fine, I also know why they're here" I managed " They heard my dreams last night, and saw how different you were" my voice was shaky as I added "oh, and I no longer need to worry about telling them about me and Edward. They know"

Edwards face almost mirrored mine, shocked, but relived. He slipped his arm around my waist and pulled me to him, kissing me lightly on the head.

" They know and they still came... another worry Bella needn't have had" he murmured. But my worry was needed. I heard Luke voice one last time

"It's not that hard, me who can give her that life or the bloodsucker. Thats her decision" followed by a series of loud raps at the door.